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Let's talk about the dreaded P word: Politics.
a year ago
I'm gonna be real for a second. Politics fucking suck. They're a massive headache, largely boring, and can ruin your life. But they're a necessary evil. Like a lot of you, I joined the fandom as a sexual outlet. I needed one because I live with my conservative father in the Tri-state area of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, the unholy trinity of Bible-thumping anti-LGBTQ hell. I was bullied viciously in school because of a rumor that I was gay, and until I was 26 (which if I were guaranteed to live to the age of 100 would be an entire fourth of my whole life), I was terrified of being my genuine self out of fear of persecution.
For the longest time, I just wanted to ignore politics and enjoy myself when I could, which was entirely here in the furry fandom. But the reality is life always has the potential to be better, and for everyone that means action, not apathy. Sure, I'm here to get my rocks off as much as anybody else, but the Republican right wants to ban and criminalize porn. Back in March 2024 they already tried legislating PornHub away, and they're actively banning LGBTQIA books from school libraries and soon-to-be public libraries. This time last year, a Republican anti-porn bill was blocked from the Senate floor on the grounds it violated the US First Amendment protecting free speech.
This isn't propaganda or hyperbole, you can look these facts up on Google right now. Of course, there are also the anti-LGBTQ bills Republicans actively try to pass each year, as well as laws passed by Republican governors at the state level. One you've probably heard about is Florida's infamous "Don't Say Gay" bill, which required teachers to out children to their parents by law. It's not the only such law, just the one with the most media coverage.
Burying your head in the sand or plugging your ears and going 'la la la' won't help you, save you, or make life better for you. The Right Wing wants to legislate us out of existence, and Trump's presidential campaign is actively promising to roll back hate speech protections, the Equality Act, and marriage equality.
Most disturbingly, I've personally experienced people in this very fandom regurgitating Right Wing rhetoric, including an individual who was using Christianity to justify internalized homophobia and trying to get people to repress their identity because 'being gay is a sin' and other such damaging rubbish. I lived that lie for 25 years of my life, I will not stand by and let harmful rhetoric hurt other people. I'm not going to be quiet in the face of social injustice, especially when I have suffered it.
The same should be true for everyone else. Your life matters, you are valid, and you were born the way you are. God doesn't make mistakes, you should not have to live your life in fear of persecution or in fear of having your inalienable rights infringed. Gay marriage wasn't legal in the US on a federal level until 2016, when I turned 26. I'll be damned if I'm going to just fap to my furry porn and let people who hate me take the right to marry the man I love away from me.
Remember that your voice matters and you have a say in all this. If nothing else, at the very least make sure you vote this November.
For the longest time, I just wanted to ignore politics and enjoy myself when I could, which was entirely here in the furry fandom. But the reality is life always has the potential to be better, and for everyone that means action, not apathy. Sure, I'm here to get my rocks off as much as anybody else, but the Republican right wants to ban and criminalize porn. Back in March 2024 they already tried legislating PornHub away, and they're actively banning LGBTQIA books from school libraries and soon-to-be public libraries. This time last year, a Republican anti-porn bill was blocked from the Senate floor on the grounds it violated the US First Amendment protecting free speech.
This isn't propaganda or hyperbole, you can look these facts up on Google right now. Of course, there are also the anti-LGBTQ bills Republicans actively try to pass each year, as well as laws passed by Republican governors at the state level. One you've probably heard about is Florida's infamous "Don't Say Gay" bill, which required teachers to out children to their parents by law. It's not the only such law, just the one with the most media coverage.
Burying your head in the sand or plugging your ears and going 'la la la' won't help you, save you, or make life better for you. The Right Wing wants to legislate us out of existence, and Trump's presidential campaign is actively promising to roll back hate speech protections, the Equality Act, and marriage equality.
Most disturbingly, I've personally experienced people in this very fandom regurgitating Right Wing rhetoric, including an individual who was using Christianity to justify internalized homophobia and trying to get people to repress their identity because 'being gay is a sin' and other such damaging rubbish. I lived that lie for 25 years of my life, I will not stand by and let harmful rhetoric hurt other people. I'm not going to be quiet in the face of social injustice, especially when I have suffered it.
The same should be true for everyone else. Your life matters, you are valid, and you were born the way you are. God doesn't make mistakes, you should not have to live your life in fear of persecution or in fear of having your inalienable rights infringed. Gay marriage wasn't legal in the US on a federal level until 2016, when I turned 26. I'll be damned if I'm going to just fap to my furry porn and let people who hate me take the right to marry the man I love away from me.
Remember that your voice matters and you have a say in all this. If nothing else, at the very least make sure you vote this November.
I mean, it's not as bad this side of the pond as it is over in the US, but damn if we aren't trying...
My family members who tell me I have shit taste because I like 'DEI TV' or 'woke groomer movies' (like Star Wars The Acolyte) aren't on the left. The people who call me the f-slur because I have a boyfriend, definitely not left-wing. That's just IRL. Online it's ten times worse, especially on social media.
Made a joke about aliens at a 4th of July cookout a few years back. One of my boomer cousins immediately told me verbatim "they ain't naw such thang as aliens! They got yew brainwashed!" Which was ironic considering the MAGA hat on his head and the 37 Trump bumper stickers on his pickup truck. (Obviously I don't go to family gatherings much anymore.)
My dad knows I'm gay, but doesn't understand it. He thinks my crippling social anxiety is the cause of me being gay. Because he's an 80-year-old conservative man who grew up back when they said smoking was good for your health and the n-word was part of his everyday vocabulary. He's definitely not left wing.
What I'm telling you now is that coming out was the best thing that ever happened to my mental health. It's the best advice I can give to you, but I can't make you follow it. That's your choice.
And I understand the risk of losing one's job and livelihood over it. But it's always possible to find another job, perhaps even a better one. You only have one life, though. And it won't get better without positive change.
You're right about Biden being a lame-duck president, which is why I'm glad he stepped down. Trump is also a senior citizen who can barely stay awake, but on top of that he's a pathological liar, a con man, a rapist, and a convicted felon.
Wraith, honey, I'm not misinformed. I'm just not blind and I'm capable of critical thought. Trump says he's not affiliated with Project 2025, yet he's literally on camera saying, and I quote, "The Heritage Foundation is a great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do in my second term." Either he's a senile old man who doesn't know better or he's a liar. Neither is a good quality for a leader.
I have not ostracized you (note how I'm choosing to have a civilized debate with you instead of hiding your comments and refusing to engage with you in good faith), but you have proven my assumptions correct. When you posted your rant about politics, you actively hid comments from people who didn't agree with your take, including me. You've proven that you lean more toward the right wing by both sides'ing the issue and engaging in Trump apologia when the man is objectively a piece of shit. He's literally publicly stated his attraction to his own daughter, as far back as when she was 13. He's publicly bragged about grabbing women's genitals without consent because "they let you get away with it when you're a celebrity."
As president, Trump mishandled the COVID-19 crisis which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, he alienated allies with tariffs while favoring our nation's enemies, and he raised the national deficit by $3 trillion. He publicly called for the execution of five innocent black youths. He said, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters." He frequently takes to truth social to do exactly what you accuse the Democrats of by insulting his political opposition with grade school nicknames like 'Lyin' Kamala' or 'Sleepy Joe.' Not to mention the racist nicknames he and the Republicans have for representatives, like calling Elizabeth Warren 'Pocahontas' because of her Native American heritage.
If you feel like people like myself disagreeing with your political stances is an attack on your character, perhaps that's because you're intelligent enough to understand that being gay and voting Republican is a self-destructive character flaw. And I know you're an intelligent person, I know you're better than that. I do not think you're a bad person at all, just that your political views are misguided and born out of decades worth of internalized homophobia. I would know, I lived it the exact same way. But like smoking, I realized those mindsets were bad for my overall well-being and I kicked the habit. I can say with complete confidence that my mental health has improved over the past few years, the proof being that I'm even having this conversation right now.
I have read your new rant, but I'll address it here.
"I endure all kinds of bullshit and yet I'm the Nazi?"
This right here was the most telling thing. No, you're not a Nazi, and never have I ever called you one. But let's not pretend the Right is going to pat you on the back and give you a medal just because you chose to be 'one of the good ones.' They hate us, they want us gone. They see us as abnormal and a threat to their way of life. They consistently call us 'groomers,' 'pedophiles,' and 'sodomites,' attack our Pride events, pass legislation like Don't Say Gay.
As I said previously, apathy is death. And when you don't speak out on behalf of others, there will be no one left to speak out for you when your rights are on the chopping block.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
It wasn't progressives, liberals, or the political left that went to Ohio and made false claims that Haitians were eating pets, that was the conservative right. Conservative Republicans are planning to deport all unregistered Latinos out of the United States once Trump takes office, while the Democrats welcomed them and gave them jobs to boost the economy.
To say that they're both bad is disingenuous and ignorant.